Took the dog to the vet for her checkup. Spaniels tend to have trouble with their anal glands, and she's always scooting along the carpet, so I put on some latex gloves and the vet gave me a hands-on lesson in how to express her anal glands. I'd tried to do it before on my own, but hadn't been able to find them or figure out how to squeeze them.
Also, she usually has no interest in other dogs, and often snaps at them if they try to say hello, but she took an interest in a pitbull at the vet. Unfortunately, the pitbull had it's own dog-aggression issues and I had to keep her away from it.
Hugs to Waggy, she seems like a sweet dog.
She's sweet to people she knows, but keeps her distance from strangers and often squeals if they try to pet her. Sometimes she snaps at the air to scare them off. She's ok with dogs her own size or smaller, if typically disinterested in them, but she doesn't like to be approached by larger dogs, and will chase them off by repeatedly biting them on their flanks or snapping at the air until they get the message. She squealed like she was being murdered once when a huge dog that looked like a small black bear came bounding towards her, but she was happy enough to take on an Alsatian recently. She also intervened recently when a border terrier was licking my face and started nipping me with it's teeth in excitement; she came rushing in and had a quick tussle with it when she saw the licks turn to bites.
The vet was worried that she'd bite me while he was poking around her bum since I had my face pressed against hers to comfort her, but we trust each other and I knew she wouldn't bite me. I'm the one she always goes to when she's scared or hurt, and getting the anal glands emptied is painful for her.